Display package



P. F. I EPoLD DISPLAY PACKAGE Jan. 17, 1967 Filed Sept. 2l, 1965 United States Patent O 3,298,516 DISPLAY PACKAGE Paul F. Leopold, Highland Parli, Ill., assigner to Pendleton Tool Industries, Ine., Los Angeles, Calif. Filed Sept. 21, 1965, Ser. No. 488,974 7 Claims. (Cl. 206--80) The present invention relates generally to packaging of items in display packages for sale at retail, especially small items which are sold individually, such as hardware items and the like.

It has been found in the art of merchandising that packaging of a product can serve many useful purposes. For example, attractive display packaging may often stimulate impulse buying by creating a desire on the part of the viewer to own the article. I t also serves a valuable purpose in carrying the advertising of the manufacturer and sometimes the retailer also, thus giving an opportunity to connect in the mind of the buyer the manufacturer and the article made. A -display card oftentimes carries suitable instructions or comments with respect to the article, in addition to the advertising displayed.

It has also beenv found advantageous to attach small individual items to a comparatively larger card which presents the above advantages and also has the advantage of reducing loss of these items from pilferage and shoplifting. This is particularly true when the card is of such a character that it cannot easily be hidden and cannot easily be separated from the article so that article itself can be taken without the card.

One form of packaging which has been developed to meet some of these situations and objectives is a display card to which a transparent film has been added, the film being pulled down over the article to attach it to the card. The film being transparent, the article is fully visible underneath the film; but this arrangement suffers from the inability of the purchaser to touch the article itself.

It is well known in the art of merchandising that prospective buyers very often desire to feel au article. Perhaps little information is actually gained by feeling the article, but the buyer is very often reassured by being able to touch or feel the article to be purchased. Oftentimes there is also gained a sense of quality in the product or other advantageous impression which stimulates sales and is advantageous to the seller and to the manufacturer.

Consequently it becomes a general object -of the present invention to provide a display package for small articles, such package being of novel design and permitting the article to be displayed openly in a maner so that it can be touched and handled as well as seen.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a display package of novel design in which a Asmall article can be securely attached to the display card in such la manner as to prevent casual separation of the article from the card but without attaching the car-d and article in such a manner that the article cannot be touched and felt.

These and other objects are attained according to the present invention by providing a display package for an article of merchandise having an opening extending through the article, the package comprising a sheet of lmanually tearable material, a metal retaining member passing through the opening in the article, and means fastening the metal retaining member to the sheet at two spaced positions at opposite sides of the article. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the sheet has a cutout area and the retaining member spans the cutout area of the card so that the article can slide along the retaining member within the cutout area of the card.

How the above objects and advantages of the present invention, as well as other not specifically mentioned, are attained will be more readily understood by reference 3,298,516 Patented Jan. 17, 19671 ICC to the following description and to the annexed drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of a display package embodying the present invention;

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 are all transverse sections through the card of FIG. 1 on lines 2*2, 3-3 and 44, respectively;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary transverse section corresponding to `a portion of FIG. 4 designated by circle 5; and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary transverse section corresponding to a portion of FIG 2, illustrating at an enlarged scale a variational means for attaching the retaining member to the card.

As may 'be seen from referenced to the drawing, the display package comprises generally two principal parts, a card 10 and a retaining member 12, an addition to the article 14 which is mounted on or attached to card 10 by member 12.

Card 10 may be generally characterized as a sheet of manually tearable material. For this purpose, a wellknown and highly suitable substance is ordinary cardboard. This portion of the package is designed t-o be destructible, not easily but without too much effort, by manually tearing the sheet in order to release the packaged article 14. Cardboard is also highly suitable because one or both faces yof the board -may easily be printed with display advertising, instructions, information regarding the article for sale, or other material which may be desired to be printed upon the card.

Card 10 is substantially larger th-an article 14, for Various reasons which will become obvious. One of them is to permit the article to be entirely surrounded by cutout portion 15 which preferably, as shown in FIG. l, is entirely spaced from the perimeter of sheet 10. However, the invention is not necessarily so limited, 'and it is within the scope of the invention to have cutout 15 open at or Ialong one side to one edge of sheet 10.

Article 14 is here shown as being a socket wrench. Such an article is only exemplary of suitable articles but particularly adapted to being mounted upon a card according to the present invention, since it has an opening 16, as shown in FIG. 2, which extends entirely through the socket. One end of the socket is adapted to receive a nut or bolt while the other end is adapted to receive a drive for rotating the socket; and the smaller end of opening 16 as represented by the drive generally determines the size of retaining member 12.

Retaining member 12 is preferably made of metal, although it may be made of a tough, non-metallic material which is relatively indestructible manually. The purpose of giving substantial strength to member 12 is to keep it from being broken in order to enable removal therefrom of article 14 but without destroying sheet 10.

Retaining member 12 spans cutout area 15 of the card, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4. Article 14 is mounted on retaining member 12 Which passes through the opening in the article so that the article 14 isfree to slide along the retaining member within the limits established by the size of cutout 15. Strip 12 extends beyond the boundaries of cutout 15 and is attached to card 10 at two spaced positions, one on either side of article 14 and cutout 15, by suitable fastening means.

As explained, st-rip 12 is preferably a thin metal strap of a size lto pass through opening 16 in the article to be mounted on the card. It is preferably punched at each end to receive a metal fastener, such as rivet 20, which is headed over at both ends in order to fasten the metal strip to the card.

Although it is within the scope of the invention to make card 10 of a single thickness of cardboard or other sheet material, it is preferred to make card 10 from a sheet of cardboard which is folded over on itself along a median line, as at the bottom of the package at 21. The two opposing faces of the folded board are then fastened together, preferably by cement means, not shown in the drawing, applied over the full area of the two halves of the sheet which are thus brought into mu-tual contact in order to form, in effect, a card having a single thickness made up of two layers or laminae which are cemented together. The retaining member 12 is in between these two laminae.

From the standpoint of convenience in manufacture, the original sheet of cardboard is punched suitable to receive rivets 20 which fasten metal strip 12 to the board, and after this is done, the board is then folded over and cemented to secure together the two layers. This produces the completed card as illustrated in the drawing. However, it is within the scope of the invention to pass rivets 20 or other fastening means through both thicknesses of the card, such fasteners then being put in place after the card is folded and cemented.

When the card is formed from a folded sheet, the retaining member is placed with one end adjacent fold 21, as shown, in order to enclose more securely the retaining member and to make the card stronger. It is also within the scope of the invention to omit metal fasteners and to rely upon the cement which fastens the two laminae of the card together to hold the metal strip in place, not only by confining the strip, since it is totally enclosed within the laminated card, but also because the cement adheres the metal strip to the cardboard sheet.

With the package described above, article 14 is attached to the display card in such a manner as to resist casual pilferage and yet the article is entirely uncovered so that the purchaser picking up the card can inspect the entire article from every angle, can feel and touch the article almost as freely as if it were not mounted on a card, and can see that nothing is being hidden by the packaging. At the same time, the card is tearable or destructible manually so that the legitimate purchaser can tear away the card to separate it from metal strip 12 in such a manner that socket 14 slides off one end of strip 12.

Strip 12 is sized to pass through opening 16 at its smallest point with some clearance. This clearance is provided so that article 14 slips off the strip 12 even with metal fastener 20 still in place since metal fastener 20 is not one which can be removed manually from strip 12 and it is not desired to have the fastener provide an obstacle to removal of the article in proper circumstances. For this reason, rivet 20 is sized to be smaller than the clearance between strip 12 and the walls of article 14 at the smallest point of `opening 16, thereby allowing the article to slide off the strip with rivet 20 still in the strip.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that many variations in construction and relation of the parts, as Well as the materials used, may be made within the scope of the present invention. As one such example, there is shown in FIG. 6 fastener 22 which is a metal staple driven through a punched hole in retaining strip 12 and passing through both thicknesses of laminated card 10. Use of a staple of this character requires a different sequence of operations in assembling and completing the package, but there may be circumstances under which a staple of this character is preferred at one or both ends of strip 12.

Since Various other changes in the detailed construction of the present invention may occur to persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, it is to be understood that the foregoing description is considered to be illustrative of, rather than limitative upon, the invention as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A display package for an article of merchandise having an opening therethrough, comprising:

a card of manually tearable material having a cut-out area;

a relatively indestructible retaining member spanning the cut-out area and passing through the opening in said article;

and securing means fastening the retaining member to the card at two spaced positions at opposite sides of the cut-out area and of the article;

said securing means preventing detachment of the retainer member from the card Without tearing the card adjacent the securing means.

2. A display package as in claim 1 in Which the card comprises two laminae cemented together with the retaining member between the laminae.

3. A display package as in claim 1 in which the card comprises a single sheet of cardboard folded over on itself on a median line to provide ltwo laminae disposed one on each of two opposite sides of the retaining member;

and cement means securing the laminae together.

4. A display package as in claim 1 in which the retaining member is a metal strip and the securing means fastening the retaining member includes a metallic fastener passing through the strip and at least a portion of the card.

5. A display package as in claim 1 in which the opening in the article is larger than the retaining member to provide clearance therewith,

and in which the means fastening the retaining member includes a metallic fastener passing through the retaining member and sized to permit the article to -slide over the metallic fastener when separated from the sheet.

6. A display package as in claim 5 in which the article is a socket wrench.

7. A display package, comprising:

a socket wrench having a central opening therethrough;

a card of manually tearable material having a cut-out area larger than the socket wrench and in which the wrench is located exposed at opposite sides of the card;

a metal strip spanning the cutout area and passing through the socket wrench;

a fastener passing through the metal strip and at least a portion of the card at each of two positions on opposite sides of the cutout area to confine the socket wrench to the cutout area and prevent removal of the wrench from the strip without tearing the card.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 480,164 8/1892 Barrett 206-47 1,378,262 5/1921 Meyer 206-78 2,743,011 4/ 1956 Woofter 206-56 3,035,693 5/ 1962 Ehrler 206-80 FOREIGN PATENTS 509,715 S/ 1920 France.

THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner. 

7. A DISPLAY PACKAGE, COMPRISING: A SOCKET WRENCH HAVING A CENTRAL OPENING THERETHROUGH; A CARD OF MANUALLY TEARABLE MATERIAL HAVING A CUT-OUT AREA LARGER THAN THE SOCKET WRENCH AND IN WHICH THE WRENCH IS LOCATED EXPOSED AT OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE CARD; A METAL STRIP SPANNING THE CUTOUT AREA AND PASSING THROUGH THE SOCKET WRENCH; A FASTENER PASSING THROUGH THE METAL STRIP AND AT LEAST A PORTION OF THE CARD AT EACH OF TWO POSITIONS ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE CUTOUT AREA TO CONFINE THE SOCKET WRENCH TO THE CUTOUT AREA AND PREVENT REMOVAL OF THE WRENCH FROM THE STRIP WITHOUT TEARING THE CARD. 